793.94/11325: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss)
598. Your 1031, November 28, 8 p.m., paragraph 2. On December 1 the British Embassy handed the Department an aide-mémoire in regard to Japanese plans for policing the area between the extra-Settlement roads. According to the aide-mémoire, the British Ambassador in Tokyo has been instructed to urge upon the Japanese Government the desirability of allowing the Municipal Council to police the area in question. The British Government inquires whether we would be prepared to take similar action.
In reply we are informing the British Embassy here68 that it seems advisable to us that at this stage our approach be made at Shanghai [Page 743] rather than at Tokyo. Accordingly, the Department desires that you discuss the matter with your British colleague and that you make an informal approach to the Japanese Consul General there. The Department suggests that, without raising any question with regard to the legalities involved in the Japanese plans, you endeavor to impress upon the Japanese Consul General the advisability at the present stage from a practical standpoint and to the end that possible disturbances or incidents may be avoided, of having the Municipal Council police the area in question for the time being. You may in your discretion inform the Japanese Consul General that you have consulted the Department in this matter and that the Department has authorized you to express the foregoing views.